Tag Results

Legal Beagles, a consumer rights forum, has launched a comparison website using its own research on fixed fees to decide which law firms are listed. Kate Briscoe, chief executive of Legal Beagles, said only around 500 firms published fixed fees on their websites.

Consumers are being misled by dubious practices in online reviews and endorsements, while more than half of buyers of services are swayed by them, according to an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority.

Almost three months after the Solicitors Regulation Authority opened up its database to comparison websites, only one is actually receiving any information, it has emerged. Meanwhile the Bar Standards Board has opened its Barristers’ Register to the public.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to end the monopoly currently enjoyed by the Law Society’s ‘Find a Solicitor’ website, by making the data behind it available to commercial comparison sites. It is also to set up own “online regulatory register” for the public.

Clients are paying law firms fixed fees in almost half of all transactions, while unbundling is becoming a significant feature of the market place, a survey for the Legal Services Consumer Panel has found.